>> my message goes across the board. you have to cross the same bridge everyday whether you are republican or democrat. neil: but it doesn't hurt you signing up to the next pixar movie were undertaking. >> i hope they just don't watch the show. neil: that will do it, thank you for watching. be prosperous and safe and be loved. goodnight. fore this fiscal cliff thing happens. melissa francis is next.

melissa: merry christmas eve, everyone. north american aerospace commander norad is currently tracking santa's progress. so far he has delivered within 2.3 billion gives. he has a way to go. my little guys are still waiting for their presence. captain, thank you for joining me. is there anything santa should look out for? >> not at all. we are looking very carefully. it looks like it will be smooth sailing for santa tonight. melissa: how is his progress so far? 2.3 billion is a lot of gifts. he has a lot of ground to cover. >> he is only about a third of the way through his journey. he is down in the and arctic

area heading towards madagascar. it looks like he will be right over the eastern part of the united states at about 9:00 p.m. tonight. melissa: where has he been so far? >> so far, he has covered all of asia. he started off in the island and moved over to japan, russia, india, and is making his way up the east side of africa. melissa: you do not see any weather problems later tonight into tomorrow? >> no weather problems at all. we are tracking him. we have a call center open here. we are tracking him. people talking to our staff here we are taking tens of thousands of calls. it is a good day so far.

melissa: captain davis, thank you for taking timout to talk with us. >> thank you. merry christmas. melissa: let's take a look at the market headlines. investor showing little cheer on christmas eve. fiscal cliff walls dominated today's shortened trading session. fiscal cliff deadlocked given another jolt to the so-called fear index. it has been a tough year for yobbo shareholders. they upgraded its target to $26 a share. yahoo! shares up more than 1.5%. it is the last day, actually, we have several hours left to run to the mall to get gifts. maybe you are a bargain shopper waiting to get a good deal. braving the christmas crowd at

the glendale galleria in glendale, california. how packed is the mall? >> i have to tell you, either a lot of people pushed it to the wire this year or they are just here for the great sales. either way, retailers are counting on procrastinators. here at the galleria, i am told they are seeing a record number of shoppers. there is no lack of shoppers here today on christmas eve. discounts are so great they just cannot stay away. crowds over the weekend have been hitting the walls all across california and the west coast. stores are staying open later. ey are extending their hours. they are slashing prices.

it has been a gloomy holiday shopping season. we had sandy and the school shooting. it has kind of been a joy lift shopping season. now, this looming fiscal cliff a week away. they need to pull out the big guns and do everything they poibly can to lure shoppers into their stores. we are seeing prices slashed 50%. here at the galleria, they may have seen record number of shoppers. shopper track which takes a look at traffic, they have actually changed their forecast from 3.3 down to 2.5%. we will have to wait and see if this had an effect at all on their bottom line. melissa: it will be interesting to see how the bottom numbers comment. i would not want to go to a mall

today. thanks a lot, lauren. there is still time to go to amazon and buy my book. i will shamelessly plug my book right here. go online. it is not too late. amazon and barnes & noble, they both have it. okay. that was shameless. i want santa to come save our economy. early reports are disappointing. can santa help us out for back joining us and a economist from the university of maryland. what you think of the holiday shopping season so far? >> we came into the holiday season with guarded

expectations. people did, and they did buy the stuff. it may not be as much. the prices may not be as high as retailers had hoped. melissa: there are people out there blaming the fiscal cliff. that seems ridiculous. how could that prevent you from spending money on holiday shopping? >> i think that is correct that people, that is something in the future. consumer spending has been slower since the middle of the year. that was evident in the third quarter of the gdp growth. wages have not grown rapidly enough. the housing market -- it has

recovered from a very low level and prices are still down quite a bit. the volume is not that big. melissa: online shopping is up 16% this year versus last year. is that just eating into regular brick-and-mortar sales? >> that is real growth in that segment. it is eating into brick-and-mortar sales. in addition to best buy, we had circuit city. they are gone now. i think we will see more of that. shopping malls are being converted into other purposes. there are lots of things that i can buy online. melissa: absolutely. i bought every single thing online this year. i am so proud of myself. it is so much easier. i wonder, we sell the total number back, do you think at this point that even that is

optimistic? >> i do not. that is nominal growth. we have had some inflation and so forth. 2.5 would be in line with inflation. maybe even a little bit better. i think we will get that. i am hopeful that today will be a great day. melissa: do gas prices help? we have seen them steadily going down. >> at the risk of aging myself, i was present when the first shopping centers were going up. melissa: how is that possible? >> i was back there. outskirts of new york city. we would write the subway into manhattan and do our christmas shopping. in those days, the big day was today.

maybe we are getting that back this year. it looks like today will be a good day. melissa: my dad would always tell me stories that they would wait until the day after christmas. will we see that this year? >> i think we have seen the deep discounts. i went out two weeks ago and bought a widescreen tv. it is already $200 cheaper. melissa: maybe you can take your receipt back and get an adjustment. on a scale of one to money, how great you think this christmas will be if we had sent out there judging? >> considering that it is 2012, not 2007 and became ill with guarded expectations a three. melissa: okay. not bad. >> it is christmas eve. people want good news. melissa: looks pretty good.

peter, thank you so much. >> take care. melissa: time now for today's fuel gauge report. cold temperatures are dominated most of the country. mild weather ahead for early january. that lowers outlook for natural gas demand. buying a 50% stake in oil and natural gas rights from apache. good news for drivers hitting the road this christmas. gas has fallen to its lowest level in the year. the average price for a gallon of gas is $3.26. that is down $0.58 in 11 weeks. congress, as usual, has its priorities straight. we are bracing ourselves to go off the fiscal cliff. plus, the fda gives green light to genetically modified

fish that could soon be in your local grocery store. you will have no idea that you are even buying one. we will explain that. more "money" coming up. ♪

melissa: bin image wage hikes starting january 1. trying to push through increases in the new year. some say they can have a downside for already struggling local economies. joining me is jonathan hoenig. >> merry christmas. melissa: you sort of gift wrap yourself. are you wearing clothes underneath their? back. >> it does hurt the economy.

it is based on supply and demand. melissa: everything you are saying makes so much sense. it is really hard to take what you are saying serious. did you catch a cab? [ laughter ] let's try to talk about this anyway. some people make the argument that if you pay workers more, they will spend more and that will fuel the economy. do you buy that back that is essentially cash for clunkers. it is that failed notion that if you give people more money to spend, that will create more. we need more investment.

we need more jobs. they would rather have somebody not making six dollars or seven dollars an hour washing dishes, we would rather have no job in a low-paying job. melissa: i would try to make the argument that the money to pay people more does not come from a money tree. if you pay each one more, it means that they hire fewer. the response to me is corporations are sitting on record profits right now. they are not investing. why not force them to pay workers more? >> the actual cost of hiring a worker, it is 1.5 times their actual salary. we make it so difficult. you think about how the great

innovators started. people like steve jobs. there was not this regulatory mooster that makes it so difficult and more expensive to hire people. minimum wage is a big part of it. if people want to work for five or six dollars an hour, it is their right to do so. melissa: i am struggling with the very serious commentary coming out of this president. the only thing they can do is raise prices. people have said to me, well, if you go into best buy or something is because they know people have a better working wage. >> it essentially kills job creation, especially on the low

end. i do not think it is their job to make that decision. nor is it the government whether it is a fair wage or not. melissa: i love your embracing and celebrating christmas. it is very pro- christmas. what was the thought process that went into im going to get a giant box and wrap it up and randomly wear it on television. we had no warning that you were going to do this at all. this is a complete surprise to me. >> there is so much to celebrate. christmas is a great time of the year. i think it is a wonderful time to step back and appreciate this wonderful country and culture that we live in. melissa: they are telling me to wrap you, no pun intended. happy new year. oh, he is god. i really hope he is not a kid in front of that box.

how about a nice filet of frank in fish. genetically made fish. do not count on your grocer to let you know you are actually eating one did that whole story is coming up next. we have the best and worst marketing stunts of the year. you do not want to miss it. ♪

i'm dominique dawes and there's a big advantage parents can give their kids -- making sure they get active at least 60 minutes each day. studies show that physical activity not only helps kids stay healthy, it can enhance important skills, like concentration and problem solving, which can improve academic performance. this means physical activity can help your kids in the most important game of all -- life. ♪ melissa: look out everyone, frank in fish could be coming to a market close to you.

sam and rose -- apparently, it is just as healthy and does not cause any problems to the environment. you may not even know you are eating it. to find out if it is worth the money, let's bring in doctor mitchell brooks. thank you for coming in tonight. are you comfortable with this? >> certainly. melissa: why? it feels creepy to the average person. there is just something about it that makes me very nervous for potential harm down the road. >> i think it is the word.

the fishes larger. it can be produced faster. it is proving to be safer. there is no harm for a bit. we will have a decrease in edible food. we have climate change. we are people hungry. here is our chance to feed them. we tested all third genetically so it could be grown in countries all over the world. melissa: let me stop you and go back a little bit, right you said you could trust a government agency. >> no, i do. basically, you know, for the

conspiracy theorists out there, i suppose, i put that in, these folks do a good job. they have been charged with our safety. they believe it is safe. melissa: do you think they have done enough research? you feel confident this will not be one of those. >> reasonably confident. yes. this has been going on for over ten years now. within the realm of profitability, it is safe, is it possible that something will happen. sure. absolutely. i think you have to weigh the benefits against the side effects. the other thing is the ethical and moral issue.

melissa: i want to think about the idea that you may not even know that this is what you are getting. if the fda says that it is safe, it can just be sold as salmon. you could go out and buy it and eat it and not even know. if the fda says it is okay, i could be eating it without even knowing it. >> you need to inform the public. like anything else, if it is said to be safe and it is priced competitively, people will eventually eat it. the issue is, we have got to increase our product dimity. we are in trouble in the future. melissa: there are already a lot of things that we eat that have been genetically enhanced.

there are plenty of vegetables out there that have been changed. this is the first animal. that is what makeseople a little uneasy. thank you. happy holidays. >> merry christmas to you. going from -- we give our 2012 to the masterminds of marketing. plus, running shoes. a former u.s. olympian turned high-priced hooker. the business is virtually untouched by the law. more "money" coming up. ♪

♪ melissa: making good progress. so who could forget fearless felix, the skydiver who broke the sound barrier while wearing a red ball logo. the world record for the highest parachute jump and lived. the energy drink maker lego was front and center, the perfect recipe for success. winners, but a bunch of losers and a marketing machine this year. joining me now to recap the highs and lows, my favorite

marketing director. thank you for coming on. >> thank you. melissa: let's get right to your list. number one pick was not the red bull space junk. you actually liked number five the best. why was that marketing genius? >> look at what he did. you have a guy from south korea who became the the number one video on all of youtube ever. a billion views. that is a thousand million, and not a thousand people watching a million times. he created a brand like no one has yet, but i think the important thing is that he is a harbinger of things to come. but this is telling us is the democratization of social media and media in general means that the next great star might not be from the u.s., from the u.k. melissa: it is hysterical, but everyone has done it. it is great marketing, but isn't

it a little bit less in the pantry? >> that might have been is 15 minutes or 13 seconds of fame. i don't know. i know he showed everyone what to do and how to do it. a stupid out that to mr. barakat, and make some foolish moves and even the president will imitate you. melissa: let's move on. i thought that was the best marketing of the year. we talked about this before. if he had jumped and i don't know if that would have been good for red bull, but you disagree in think either way was a wind. >> if he had jumped indicted would have blown a bigger than it did come as we talked about last time. all those kids who are drinking the product would have loved it is eyeballs' exploded, but they did something, created the event, greeted the news, created their own media, got almost 9 million live hughes from the point of planning, executing, pay for it, do it, it was number

one. but from metrics it came in a number two. melissa: number three for you was cna in brazil. they put it facebook like in their stores. i hope we have a picture of this. when you go into the store and you're looking at the clothing it has on the hangar a digital read that shows you how many other people have liked whatever the piece of clothing is which i think is ridiculous because and i so dependent on other people's opinions i will only buy a dress that of the people like? >> your not the typical consumer. you're a superstar, a beautiful woman on national tv. more of that afterwards. most shoppers. really commend you think are going to do that? these were active windows on the hangers that wirelessly receive the of likes as facebook likes

were being tallied. there were getting 1,000 flights per hour, 9 million. here is the great thing. not only worked for insecure shoppers, but think about what it did to their husbands and boyfriends. no longer do we get that answer will question the money, these genes make me look fat. they already knew what people thought. melissa: said that you're going to say that husbands shopping on their own would know that this is a popular item. let's move on. is so much more fun. pizza hut election question at the top of your last. they tried to g people to stand up at the debate and ask whether we like pepperoni year cheese. was that pepperoni or sauces? >> pepperoni your sauces. they wanted someone to stand up in the town of the bay between the president and the governor before the election and when they got to ask a question to ask, do you prefer your pizza

with sausage or pepperoni. think about not only what the baldheaded move that was, but how incredibly disrespectful it is, not just of the two guys who were up there. melissa: they went back on it, so you gives him some credit. mercedes-benz using -- well was the deal with that? >> this one is hard to believe. they used him in a presentation, and on his beady instead of the redstart they had the merced logo. i know what happened, they had a twentysomething art director the only time years she had ever seen was on a t-shirt and a river something. no, if you want to sit or revolutionary, let's use a revolutionary. however, it was a little bit close to people's hearts, and it's not like we used somebody from the french revolution. this was from an era and time that just happened. a really stupid move. you know, mercedes pulled it and apologized. melissa: samsung's galaxy three, was their marketing campaign?

>> this was unbelievable. they did a campaign where i get is the leading on that trip and mom bumps phones to send them a video with the kids to drink. then she bumps once again to tell dad here is a special video from meat. and she winks. samsung is selling taxing. if they did we wold have all these problems in school. then they did an ad with santa and mrs. claus where she sends -- misses plan -- clause nse santa a dirty video on their samsung's galaxy. he was watching porn on the phone. come on. really. melissa: does not good. i saw the one you were talking about, and i thought it was kinda funny, but then i didn't have to explain it to anyone. there you go. happy holidays. thanks for coming on. that was fun.

>> happy holidays. thank you. melissa: question of the day. the best marketing some of the year. i think this is really one with the hangars that shows facebook likes. ridiculous. let me know. we wanted know what you think. follow me on twitter. all right. straight ahead on "money", from trusted treks. $600 an hour a prostitute, the private world of illegal online business exposed. details on how many of them are getting away. i always wonder how many people are getting away with this. piles of money and tips on that coming up. ♪ i'

♪ melissa: all right. winning titles turning tricks. an unusual turn. a three-time olympic team of olympic competitor who went from being one of the most decorated olympic athletes to be ranked number three on the erotic review website. recently confessed about her call broke real comfort -- call girl career, but there were

pictures of her posted on the internet for anyone to see. how can someone be operating an illegal website and that it cut? joining me now is former attorney and tdk along with attorney joy jackson. thank you for joining me. so i'm going to start with you because this is my question. hal are all these businesses operating illegal businesses stuff free on the internet? this site would have never been taken down, business would have never been closed had she not reveal to someone that she was actually this famous individual, the smoking gun website when and blew it all up so everyone knew she was. that is what shut down this online prostitution business. had it not been for that there would have been operating forever. why is it so easy to run an illegal business and internet? >> the problem is monitoring, tracking, and catching people who are actually doing it. it is so easy, especially for this type of business, as court call grow, to set up website.

constantly changing. and the only way law enforcement and prosecutors actually get involved is usually when something comes to light sucas this or what i often found was it would be children, children would get picked up and they were being exploited in human trafficking. in the police go undercover and boosting operations and things like that, and that is how they track the people down. a lot of the people wo are just manning the websites, you know, they don't know. there not the major players. melissa: let me ask you because this whole business depends on threepeat plate. she was rent on website where they were talking about what she was like on this date in that. all the information was there foanyone to get command ever going back to the website, which is now down, to set up dates over and over again. why could police -- if i were somebody working in this business would be terrified of getting caught amongst the other things. >>bsolutely. there are number of things associated with this.

and this speaks to a larger issue in general. whenever you like the internet, you're looking at the world wide web. so its international in nature. as the first problem. it's an international problem. the second is the coordination problem between all the countries that have a web. finally, you have to look at the regulations that are involved. people who operate in this environment, you're talking about an international business. the analogy i can get you, the fda, food and drug administration crackdown on drugs that were illegal. you know what it took? getting interpol involved which is the international police agency in 24 countries which came together, and they busted this wing -- ring of illegal operators had medicine, and so every year operating environment that is so vast it becomes problematic. melissa: i hear you, but i will go back to you. this was a domestic operaon. you look at things like buying counterfeit goods online, fake fancy shoes and designer handbags. those are made here in the u.s.,

sent from addresses here in the u.s. to people off buying counterfeit goods. that's obviously illegal, but someone sets up shop and it's up for a long time, doing transactions with a credit card, mailing it from where they are. if anyone wanted to enforce the law it seems like it would be really easy. the police not care about illegal businesses online? >> no. not at all. the police to care. the problem is, the resources because these enterprises, it takes nothing to start and stop and start up again for these businesses and it takes so many man hours, so many police hours to find and track these people. the thing is, there is no elite. as just this big person. you don't want the prostitutes, you don't want the johns. you want the pastor actually setting these businesses up, doing far more than just adult prostitution. it's all human trafficking. there's so much that goes beyond what we're seeing.

melissa: is becoming hard to make a buck. taxing the hell out of anyone who dares go out there and makes money. maybe i should start in illegal business. advise me as my criminal defense attorney. >> you will be the are an awful -- hon., wonderful person that you are. melissa: there is no penalty. >> it takes five minutes to develop an l.l. seat. limited liability company that you can develop online. it takes five minutes. what you need to do is in a regulatory fashion the police have to monitor a better so they can coordinate with each other so that they can crack down, break it down, and prevent people from selling whenever it is, what a personal services, whether it'sandbags, or whether it's anything else that's inappropriate, illegal, unlawful. melissa: you think people should be worried about running illegal businesses online? >> have to tell you, if it is an online business you have a

much better probability of driving in it, ding it, becoming enough to been york, and succeeding than if you opened the shop but everyone could see a year. it's a big problem. melissa: give me your advice. >> no. and where i practice in california, there are taskforce at crack down on counterfeit handbags, shoes, all of that type of thing being sold over the internet and is store fronts. it is a big business in california, and there are special task force. but that costs money. and then to prosecute, of the witnesses are out of state. it's hard to get people out of state to come and testify. melissa: you guys convince me. i won't do it after all. i love my job anyway, just going to do this. i was going to do that on this side. never mind. thank you for setting me straight. good point. mistletoe is not just a source

of awkward sexual tension and the holidays anymore. it may help give a kiss of death to some of the most deadly diseases. we explain coming up next. you can never have too much "money" for mistletoe. ♪

♪

melissa: have all right. we are joined by monica crowley and adam shapiro. they deserve that. all right. first, i want to see where santa clauses. joining us from norad, major general. tell us about the progress on this very important day, keeping on schedule. >> so far doing great. this left the ukraine. went to moscow now. that was the last sight. thirty seconds ago. a couple issues with head winds, had to refuel the reindeer a few times more than normal, but other than that it has really been a textbook. great all-around the world so far. melissa: right on schedule.

are you surprised? >> he's been doing this are very long time. has it down to an art and science. those reindeer boss tells, they bust tales. >> i put them on my radio show. my favorite segments of the entire year. remember, two weeks ago they identified that north korean missile during that missile test now in addition to keeping a safe, they can spy on santa. melissa: what do you have to contribute? >> went in town car. absolutely the koreans or the weather problems. it went well. melissa: thank you for that one. moving on to mistletoe. not only a good excuse to kiss during the holidays, but a long history of medicinal uses in europe. used for everything from headaches to cancer, supposedly

enhance the immune functioning. which really is not -- what do you think? >> if it works and why not. a lot. so maybe we should be legalizing all of it. melissa: over centuries mistletoe has been used as a cure all and kind of like a folk remedy, but sometimes when you hear about old-time folk remedies that iran might use are recommended, they are the best things for what ails you. now they are doing serious research. melissa: it could be just the kissing that is helping. have we isolated it from the mistletoe? >>he new leaders of the germans took the fun out of it. there were feeding its people. melissa: i see. thank you for clean that up. the national dual log. blaze for more than 50 years. this year the layout of the holiday display was in serious -- mysteriously changed. there was a chance the fire will

be rekindled next year. what do you think about this? >> such a bummer. ch a huge holiday tradition for so many people who go down to washington and take a look at the white house and might visit their member of congress. they give see this. by the way, those of us in new york and elsewhere have had the televise yule log. by the way, yes, i am looking forward to that. but actually extinguish the real national you log is really a bummer. they say it may come back. melissa: a lot of complaints that they used trees are dangerous. >> they always did it. melissa: in the complaint you could make, but now it is mysteriously gone. >> there will have to be subject to the carbon tax. melissa: moving on to new year's. the gigantic number 13 that will be part of the live up